Dates 1 & 2

Although neither of our first attempts were award-winning, we were able to break our normal pattern, at least a little. . . .

When I gave my husband the option of either going first or second, he of course chose second.  It left me with only a couple days to come up with something, so I decided to start small.  Instead of our typical dinner out at one of our regular restaurants followed by a trip to the home improvement store I decided to go for an afternoon of window shopping for furniture followed by an early dinner somewhere we don't normally go.  This allowed for a little shift from the norm and I wouldn't need to find a sitter, we could just take the munchkin along with us.

After a run to the bank to put some stuff in a safe deposit box we started the date at Nebraska Furniture Mart.  I don't know if it's like that every Saturday or not, but it was INSANE busy there.  We checked out some laptops, desks, sofas and beds.  By that time we were getting tired of the crowds, so we headed down the road to Furniture Row Outlet.  This was much more pleasant.  We checked out some living room furniture and found a sofa and chairs we really like - now we just have to save up the money.  Next it was to the Select Comfort store to check out sleep number beds.  We're still on the fence about those. 

For dinner I chose Granite City.  I was playing it a little safe.  We'd been there before so I knew we'd like the food and it would be ok to take junior in with us.  I ordered way more food than I could eat, but it was all delicious, and as usual the baby was on his best behavior (other than a rather messy trip to the restroom, but that's what babies do).  I honestly don't remember what John ate, I hadn't thought up this blog idea yet, so I didn't pay much attention. I had a portabella mushroom sandwich, a side of mac and cheese that was on a specials menu, a salad and an iced tea.

Total cost:  $40 for dinner - 1 salad, 2 meals, 1 extra side, 1 iced tea, tax and tip.

Next up was hubby's turn.  He decided to switch things up a bit and arranged for a baby sitter on Thursday night.  He then took me to Jazz-A Louisiana Kitchen for dinner.  Another safe choice, we love Jazz, but we really don't go there very often so it was very enjoyable and delicious.  There was live music, which made it even better.  By the time we were done eating we realized why we don't go out on weeknights - at least not now, with a small baby at home.  We were both stifling yawns, but we were determined to enjoy our kid-free time.  We decided to spend a little more time at Jazz and splurge on dessert, then went to the bookstore to browse - one of my favorite things to do. We also stopped and picked up some things at the pet store.  By then we were pretty much beat so we headed to the sitter's to pick up the little one and called it a night. 

We had an order of fried okra for an appetizer.  I had the shrimp po'boy.  It usually comes with either Cajun coleslaw or sweet potato salad and a couple hush puppies. I'm not a fan of the sweet potato salad and my nursing baby isn't a fan of coleslaw, so the I asked for a few extra hush puppies instead.  For dessert I ordered a gourmet turtle chocolate cake, but they were out so I "settled" for strawberry cheesecake.  John had scallops Lafayette - scallops in a cheesy cream sauce served with a scoop of dirty rice in the middle and bread pudding for dessert.  Everything was delicious!

Total cost:  $50 for dinner - 1 appetizer, 2 meals, 2 desserts, 1 iced tea, tax and tip. Minus $10 in groupon savings = actual cost of $40

Shrimp po'boy and hush puppies at Jazz

On a side note, each date came in $10 under budget but we used some of that extra for drinks at a function we attended, so the current date night fund is $58.  My plans for this weekend should come in well under that, but you'll have to come back next week to see for sure.